Search launched after distress call received via text
The Coast Guard is searching for a missing mariner who issued a distress message Thursday morning by text message via satellite.
Rimas Meleshyus transmitted a text to a friend at 8:47 a.m. Thursday, saying, "I lost my life raft, in danger now."
The Coast Guard is coordinating a search for the owner of the 24-foot sailboat about 944 miles northeast of the Hawaiian Islands.
Meleshyus left Hilo on Feb. 9 on a solo voyage to San Francisco aboard the Pier Pressure.
An HC-130 Hercules aircraft was diverted at 10:32 a.m. to the boat’s last known position. The Coast Guard asked the Federal Aviation Administration to alert aircraft passing through the area to look for any signs of distress.
Gale-force winds and seas of 20 feet were reported at the last known position of the sailboat, the Coast Guard said.
Purse-snatching case reclassified as manslaughter
Honolulu police have reclassified a robbery case to manslaughter following the death of a Waikiki woman injured in a purse snatching.
The Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Julie Stephenson’s death was a homicide, following an autopsy. The office said she died at 12:39 a.m. Wednesday of complications following injuries to the right lower extremity and a broken thighbone.
Stephenson, 52, broke her hip and suffered internal bleeding when an assailant shoved her down and took her purse in the driveway of her condominium, the Tradewinds, on Ala Moana Boulevard near Hobron Lane, at about 9:20 p.m. Feb. 2.
Doctors at Straub Clinic & Hospital replaced Stephenson’s hip and had her put in a coma to protect her organs from further damage, her family said.
Police are still looking for suspects.
